New Years As A Host
by EchoResonance
Summary: Something's really bothering me. Something seems off with Kaoru; he just doesn't seem like his usual self. I'm starting to get worried... HikaHaru, however, nothing severe, which is why it's categorized by the brothers instead. Sequel to "Christmas As A Host".
1. VERY Strange Dream

"Kaoru, did you hear something?" I mumbled, rolling over in the bed to look at the clock. It was three forty-seven in the morning. No wonder there was no light sneaking past the heavy drapes over our windows. After a week at Tamaki's place, I was hard pressed to do anything but sleep to block out the big old perv's rants about me abusing "his little girl".

"Wha…?" my brother answered. "No…I didn't hear anything."

"Huh. Could'a sworn I heard—" I mused, but cut myself off midsentence. It was very quiet, kind of muffled, and if I hadn't been paying attention, I would never have noticed it. A small squeak, or rather, a frightened cry.

"Heard what, Hikaru?" Kaoru mumbled, prodding me in the back. "I don't hear anything."

"Quiet," I said sharply. "Listen."

My brother sighed, but did as I asked. Just a few seconds later, another small sound came through our walls. I felt Kaoru stiffen behind me.

"Okay, that time I heard it," he acknowledged. "It's coming from Haruhi's room, isn't it?"

"I think it is," I agreed.

"Well?"

"Well what?" I wondered, in one of those rare moments where our minds weren't perfectly synchronized. Then again, it was too early to even get my own thoughts straight.

"Go check on her, moron!" Kaoru exclaimed, exasperated.

He planted a foot in my back, and gave me a hard shove. I tumbled out of the bed and onto the thickly carpeted floor, goosebumps erupting over my back skin when I left the warmth of the blankets for the cold air in the rest of the room. At least the floor wasn't hardwood. That could have hurt a little more.

"What was that for?" I groaned, clambering unsteadily to my feet.

"I thought it was obvious," Kaoru answered, rolling back over. "Put some pants on before you go over. She'll have a heart attack if she wakes up to you wearing nothing but your boxers."

"Whatever," I grumbled, but did as my twin suggested, snatching the jeans I had worn yesterday from the floor and jerking them on. I debated whether or not it would be worth the effort to brush my unruly red hair, and quickly ruled against it. It sounded like Haruhi was having a nightmare. I couldn't make her wait just so I could run a comb over my head.

The air in the hallway was colder than in the bedroom, but everything would feel cold to me after coming from a warm cocoon of blankets. Plus, I hadn't bothered to find a shirt, either.

I tried Haruhi's door, and was relieved to find it unlocked. I wasn't sure if she would have left it as such with all of the boys around, but then, she was extremely trusting. A little too much so at times, honestly. I opened the door quietly, and looked over at the bed. Haruhi was tossing and turning, the comforter kicked clear off the mattress, and the sheets tangled around her legs.

"Haruhi?" I said, coming closer and sitting on the edge of the bed. She didn't respond. "Haruhi, wake up."

I reached over and lightly shook her shoulder. Apparently, that was all it took to wake her up, because she sat bolt upright with a startled noise. I leaned back quickly to avoid getting hit by her forehead.

"Haruhi?" I checked, leaning closer to get a good look at her. Her rich brown eyes were unusually bright.

"Hikaru?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands. "What are you doing in here?"

"Me and Kaoru heard you crying in your sleep," I told her. "Were you having some kind of nightmare?"

Her cheeks flushed a delicate shade of pink, and I reached out and caught her tiny hand in mine.

"Sort of…" she answered. "It's silly now that I think about it, though…"

"What was it about?" I wondered.

"The, uhm—the girls from Lobelia…" she muttered.

"What about them?" I snorted. "They're all crazies."

"Yeah, they are," she agreed. Then she continued trying to tell me about the dream. "But they…They started their own…Host Club thing."

"_What_?" I choked in shock. "How could your mind be sick enough to come up with something like that?!"

"That's what I thought!" she replied. "It was terrifying!"

We stared at each other for a moment with melodramatic expressions of horror on our faces, then cracked up into raucous laughter. A knock sounded on Haruhi's door while we clutched each other, tears streaming down our faces at the thought of those "Zuka Club" girls starting anything like our Host Club.

"Hey you two," Kaoru called tiredly. "If Haruhi's not traumatized by that dream, could you keep it down? Some people still like to sleep past sunrise."

"Sorry, Kaoru!" Haruhi called, hiccupping a little as she tried to stop laughing. Then she added in a softer voice, "But I think it did traumatize me, just a little."

"I should think so!" I agreed, swiping at the tears of mirth rolling down my face.

When our amusement eventually subsided, I leaned back from Haruhi.

"We probably should get some more sleep," I sighed. "God knows we'll need it. We've got about another week with the Boss in this place, and he's not gonna make it easy on us."

"Yeah, you're probably right," she nodded, lying back down on her side.

I stood up, and threw the comforter back over the bed. No surprise, with my skill it settled perfectly over the mattress, just covering Haruhi up to her neck.

"Thanks," she said with a small smile.

"…Hey, Haruhi?" I said hesitantly, not moving from where I stood at her bedside.

"Yeah? What is it?" she said concernedly.

"Can I sleep in here with you?"

"Out."

I laughed as I walked out the door.

"It was worth a shot, wasn't it?"

"Whatever," she muttered before I closed the door.

_Okay_, I acknowledged. _The Boss isn't really the only pervert here, is he?_


	2. Do You Still Need Me?

"Morning, Haruhi," my brother and I said. We'd come out of the bedroom at the same time as Haruhi, nearly running into her. She hadn't changed out of her pajamas, which was strange. She hadn't gone down to breakfast with all of us all week without showering and changing into her day clothes.

"Morning, guys," she yawned.

"So, what did you two talk about last night?" Kaoru wondered as we walked down to the dining room together.

I looked at Haruhi, and judged by the look on her face that she, too, was fighting with all her might against the urge to burst out laughing again as she recalled the dream that I had woken her from. The Zuka Club. Starting a Host Club like ours. Just plain wrong, on so very many levels.

"Nothing," I chuckled as I took her hand. "Nothing at all."

"Huh."

I frowned at my twin. He seemed a little…put out.

"Something wrong, Kaoru?" I asked.

"You two usually tell each other everything," Haruhi sighed. She tugged her hand from mine. "I'll…leave you two alone for a little while."

Then she proceeded at a brisk pace until she was well ahead of us. I frowned after her.

"What's with her?" I wondered.

"Beats me."

I looked over at him. His eyes were hard, fixed straight ahead of him.

"What's with you?"

"Nothing."

"Kaoru," I said sharply, catching his elbow and forcing him to stop. "What's going on? Did I say something weird?"

"I said it's nothing," he said. "I'm fine."

My gaze narrowed.

"No you aren't," I contradicted. "You can't lie to me, Kaoru, you know that."

Kaoru sighed.

"Hikaru," he said quietly. "Do you still need me?"

I blinked. Had he really just asked me that? _Me_? Did I still _need_ him? He was my brother; my twin. Of course I needed him! Why would he even ask me something like that?

"Kaoru, are you stupid?" I demanded. "Of course I need you; you're my brother! How could you ask me that? We've been together since the day we were born."

"Hikaru," he sighed, gently wresting his arm from my grip. "We aren't going to be together, just the two of us, forever. Sooner or later, we'll have to branch out. Expand our world. Some day, you're not going to need me the same way you always have."

"K-Kaoru…" I choked. What was he saying? That I would somehow just _forget_ about him someday? That we'd have to go out and meet new people and never rely on each other again? What kind of sick, twisted things was he thinking of?

"I'm not saying that we'll just disappear from each others' lives, Hikaru," he said, guessing my train of thought. "All I'm saying is that sometime, you'll find someone you need more than me. We both have to take certain steps separately, when we're ready. All I'm asking now is if you _are_ ready."

"I-I can't…" I stumbled. "What…That's stupid. We've always been together. Always. Why are you saying now that we can't be?"

"I'll take that as a _no_," he said, and he had the nerve to chuckle.

"Kaoru, answer me!" I snapped. "Why are you talking like this all of a sudden?"

He shook his head.

"You haven't been leaning on me like you used to," he said, and he looked down the hall, in the direction that Haruhi had gone. "It's Haruhi. You've found someone else to rely on. Someone else you trust and care about. It isn't a bad thing, Hikaru."

"What, so you think Haruhi is replacing you?" I said, baffled. Had he had some bad sushi the previous night or what? He was insane.

"No, Hikaru," he said, and I knew his patience was starting to wear thin. "That's not what I'm saying. _Listen_. I know no one will ever replace me as your brother. But there are other people out there willing to reach out to you. They're allowed to be there for you and understand you. I know Haruhi does. She understands what goes on in your head better than anybody else, even me sometimes. She knows your heart like the back of her hand. You've already taken that first step on your own. I don't begrudge you for it."

"Kaoru, what—" I tried, still not understanding.

"Come on," he interrupted. "Everyone's probably waiting for us in the kitchen.

I let him pull me down the hallway, half in a daze.

The sound of our footsteps was muffled by the thick carpet in the corridors, but the carpet wasn't thick enough to hide the fact that we weren't in sync. The sound was soft, but it rang harshly in my ears. The sound of two separate harmonies. That had never happened. We were always together. Always. We were of the same thought, of the same action. We were of one being. Two parts of the same whole, always completely, perfectly, totally together. But now…Now we weren't anymore. Our footsteps weren't together, the way they had always been. They were two distinct sets of percussion, hitting the floor in different beats, different times.


	3. I've Got A Plan

New Year's was in two days. We would all stay awake in the "family room", waiting for the clock to turn and for the crowds on television to officially celebrate the new year. We had all sat down and written down our resolutions for the year, and when midnight came and went, we would read them to each other. I had stared at my sheet of paper for probably a solid ten minutes without doing anything, my conversation with Kaoru playing over and over in my head.

_Do you still need me? We both have to take certain steps separately. You haven't been talking to me like you used to._

He was right. I hadn't been confiding in him, the way I always had.

_It's Haruhi. You've found someone else to rely on._

Someone else to rely on? Had I really? Sure, Haruhi was easy to talk to. Sure, I guess she was fun to hang around. Sure, I couldn't remember what my life had been like without her, and I didn't particularly want to. She was always there for me. Holding out a hand, telling me to grow the hell up, because there was _nothing_ that I should be worrying about so much that I lost sleep or couldn't eat.

_She understands what goes on in your head better than anybody else, even me sometime. She knows your heart like the back of her hand._

I looked over at Haruhi, who sat quietly beside me on the couch, leaning into my side and reading on of her new books. She knew something had been on my mind since that talk with Kaoru, I was sure of it, but she never pressed the subject.

As though she could somehow sense my gaze, she glanced up, her rich brown eyes meeting my hazel gaze. She gave a small smile, and nestled closer into my side. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she went back to reading. Her hair was in danger of getting too long again—she would need to get it cut before we all went back to school—but I liked it. It curled down almost to her shoulders, rich auburn highlights brought out by the soft lighting in the Boss's family room.

"Haru-chan, do you like the book Takashi got you?" asked Hunny from where he sat at the little coffee table in the middle of the room, eating a rather large slice of white angel food cake.

Mori glanced up from his own book when Hunny asked the question, his dark eyes echoing his cousin's curiosity. Haruhi giggled.

"Yeah, I do," she answered. "Thanks, Mori-senpai."

"Hn…" he acknowledged.

Kyoya was in one of the arm chairs, doing God only knows what on his laptop, and Tamaki was standing behind the chair, _watching_ Kyoya do God only knows what on his laptop. Kaoru had slept in this morning, and I hadn't wanted to wake him up. Haruhi closed her book and reached across me to set it on the end table.

"Hikaru, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked, standing and stretching.

"Uh, sure," I said hesitantly, climbing to my feet. "What about?"

"Nothing in particular," she shrugged. Still, when she took my hand and led me out of the occupied room, I knew it had to be _something_ in particular. Something that maybe she didn't want the others eavesdropping in on.

"How are things with you and Kaoru?" she asked out in the hallway.

"Ah—fine, I guess," I answered, but even as I said it, I wondered if that was true. I'd barely talked to Kaoru since yesterday morning, and the atmosphere around the two of us just felt different. Off. The tension between us was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Haruhi's penetrating gaze told me I wasn't fooling anybody.

"Are you sure?" she checked.

"It's nothing for you to worry about, Haruhi," I told her instead. "I think…I think I have a plan to work it out."

Haruhi smiled.

"I'm sure you do. And I'm also sure that you aren't going to tell me what it is, are you?"

I grinned.

"You know me so well," I chuckled. She stuck her tongue out at me. "You'll find out soon enough," I promised her.

She raised her eyebrows.

"Hikaru…I don't want to come between you and your brother," she said quietly. "If there's something I can do…"

"It's fine, Haruhi," I assured her, taking her hand and tugging her closer. "It isn't you, I promise. I get the feeling it's something that's been bothering Kaoru for a long while, before you ever even came into the picture. He's always been more mature than me, when we're together at least."

"Uhm, yeah, your brother is way more mature than you most of the time," Haruhi agreed readily, laughing at the look of mock indignation on my face.

"Whatever," I grumbled. She laughed and pecked me on the cheek. A flash of warmth burned my cheeks.

"C'mon," she said, towing me toward the stairs.

"Wh-where are we going?" I wondered as she pulled me in the direction of her room. I couldn't help the blush that stained my cheeks as different scenarios played through my head.

"Oh, grow up you pervert," she muttered. "We're just going to get your brother's lazy butt out of bed!"

"Oh. Right. I knew that," I responded, an embarrassed grin curling my lips.

"Of course you did."


	4. Resolution

"Time to read them!" said Tamaki excitedly. "Our resolutions! It's midnight."

"Always the master of stating the obvious," Haruhi sighed.

"Yeah, that's no lie," said Kaoru and I together. He looked over at me, and I think he tried to smile, but something was still eating at him, I could tell.

"I'll go first," said the Boss self-importantly.

I rolled my eyes and leaned on Haruhi. _We'll be lucky if he's done by one_, I thought wryly. The Boss had a knack for mincing words, so even if he only had a couple of resolutions, it would likely take him a very, _very_ long time to get through them. Intent on tuning him out, I closed my eyes, instead thinking about my own resolution. I'd thought long and hard about it, and I had finally come up with the perfect one. Just one, because there was one thing that mattered to me above all else.

"Get ready for an award-winning speech," Haruhi warned under her breath, as Tamaki rose gracefully to his feet and brandished his paper. Papers, actually, all double-sided.

"Good God," I grumbled, not even paying attention to what he was saying. "How much does he need to say?"

"Most people just say _I want to eat healthier_ or _I want to be nicer_," my brother added with a groan. "Why can't the Boss be one of those people?"

On the other side of the room, Kyoya sat in an armchair, typing away on his new laptop and not even pretending to be interested in what Tamaki was saying. His glasses were sliding down his nose again, like they always did. In the couch next to him, Hunny was eating cake in Mori's lap while Mori appeared to be taking a nap.

Haruhi sighed and leaned her head on my shoulder, closing her eyes tiredly. She never stayed up so late, I already knew that. She got drop dead tired any time after ten. Most likely, she'd fall asleep where she was during Tamaki's reading. Kaoru sat on my other side, a notable gap between our hips where normally we constantly touched. It felt like miles.

Was he intentionally pushing me away? Trying to _force_ me to take that step away from him, like he'd been talking about? What had gotten into him? Surely Haruhi couldn't make him feel _threatened_. He _had_ to know that she would never _replace_ him. She simply couldn't.

Of course he knew that. He had said that very thing when Hikaru confronted him. But it was almost as though he was _trying_ to change that. Why?

"…And that concludes my New Year's resolution," said Tamaki triumphantly. He was met by an impressive snore from Haruhi, who had indeed dozed off on my shoulder.

"Yes, yes, very inspiring, Tamaki," said Kyoya in his usual bored tone. The screen light from his laptop glared off of his glasses, making them look white and opaque.

Tamaki, looking utterly dejected, skulked off to his mushroom corner once again.

"I wonder if those are poisonous?" I said irrelevantly. If they weren't, a fair amount of money could be saved on buying mushrooms.

"I wouldn't touch them," Kyoya advised. Then he shut his laptop and rose to his feet. "Well, unless anyone else feels like sharing, I'm off to bed. Tamaki wasted almost an hour already, and I'm rather tired now."

"Hang on," I said quickly. Carefully, I tried to nudge Haruhi's cheek onto the back of the sofa without waking her, but jerked from her sleep at the movement. She blinked rapidly, then looked up at me. I grinned, and she made a shooing motion with her hands.

"Go on," she muttered. "Hurry up, so I can go to bed."

I laughed and stood, my paper clutched tightly in my hand even though I'd had the words memorized a while ago.

"Well this is a surprise," Kyoya remarked.

"You go, Hika-chan!" Hunny cheered through a mouthful of cake.

"Hn," Mori encouraged. Kaoru just watched me, looking bemused. I cleared my throat.

"My New Year's resolution," I said clearly, eyes locked on Kaoru. "Is to make new bonds, without losing any old ones. Some idiot seems to think that, in order to grow up, I'll eventually need to distance myself from him. I made this resolution to show, once and for all, that that isn't true. I can make new friends and go wherever I want in life, and I can do that without losing my best friend, even if he's a total moron."

I highly doubt anyone questioned who I had written that resolution for. I could feel Haruhi's smile as she looked at me, but I was too busy glaring a challenge at my brother, just daring him to object, to meet her eyes with my own. Kaoru looked—there was no other word for it—amused. Like he thought my words were _funny_.

Without warning, he began to laugh.

"Hikaru, you're an idiot," he choked. "That comprehension class isn't doing anything at all for you, is it?"

I blinked.

"Wh-what?" I said stupidly. "You've been avoiding me all week!"

"Moron," my brother replied, still chuckling. "I wasn't _avoiding_ you, I was just letting you spend time with Haruhi on your own!"

"So you weren't mad?" I said incredulously.

"Not about that, no," he answered.

"Not about _that_?" I echoed, narrowing my eyes. "What were you mad about, then?"

"How dense you are!"

"I am not dense!"

"Whatever! You so are!"

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

Behind me, I heard Haruhi sigh loudly.

"I'm going to bed you guys," she said. "Good night."

As she left the room, my brother and I still arguing, I was pretty sure she said something else too.

"I don't know what they're worried about. Those two will never grow up."

**_I know these chapters were shorter, but I just wanted to do a little something for New Years as well. Plus, I got a lot of requests to continue from "Christmas As A Host". Well? Hope you liked it short and sweet ^.^_**


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